Coaches Team girl(s) missing practice

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GymMom&Coach

Coach
Proud Parent
With a excuse, how often do you allow your girls to miss practice? I am all for my girls have other activities, but one of my L4 (will score out and move to L5 SOON! :) Misses , maybe once every two weeks for Track practice and/or a school dance...
I really need her to be in the gym and practice, she is one of my best girls!
What is acceptable in your gym?
 
They are not allowed to miss...this is enforced by their own lack of progress. Gymnasts are simply not moved into the "highly committed" optional level program if they their attendance is not acceptable.

"Officially" we are 80% for compulsories and 85% for optionals.

Once again...this is really only enforced by their own lack of progress...however...we will not move an extremely talented compulsory gymnast onto the optional team if they are below our team standard for attendance.

Yes...we have compulsories and Xcel gymnasts with terrible attendance. Yes...all of our optionals have good attendance.
 
I don't like it when girls miss practices but I allow it as long as they or their parents send me a message or tell beforehand. They also have to tell me the exact reason.

For younger and lower level gymnasts we allow them to miss one practice a week if they miss it because of some other sports practice. We don't want to force them to choose between gymnastics and other sports before age 10.
 
I require the parents to either tell me beforehand or send me a text message if it's on short-notice. They also have to tell me the reason why they have to miss practice. Some other coaches think this is excessive but my personal opinion is that in terms of attendance, gymnastics should be treated the same as school where you can't just not show up for no good reason either. However I do not forbid them to go to birthday parties or miss practice for another reason but sickness or injury. I feel like the gymnast needs to be behind putting gymnastics practice above everything else and not the coach or parent. We do have very good attendance with the older girls and I haven't had any problems with them lying about why they can't attend practice.
 
I require the parents to either tell me beforehand or send me a text message if it's on short-notice. They also have to tell me the reason why they have to miss practice. Some other coaches think this is excessive but my personal opinion is that in terms of attendance, gymnastics should be treated the same as school where you can't just not show up for no good reason either. However I do not forbid them to go to birthday parties or miss practice for another reason but sickness or injury. I feel like the gymnast needs to be behind putting gymnastics practice above everything else and not the coach or parent. We do have very good attendance with the older girls and I haven't had any problems with them lying about why they can't attend practice.


well, then i would say that some of them are pretty good liars. lol :)
 
I never lie about why we miss practice. I couldn't ask DD to lie too- I can just see me saying she's sick, then her turning up at practice saying what a good time she had at suzie's party :lol:

I'd have a word with the parents, make sure you're all on the same page- how do they/the gymnast/you view her gymnastics? Do they see it as a fun activity, or do they realise she could be really good with a bit of commitment- and do they want that commitment.

I was always honest with the coach too as my feeling is if they should say if they're not happy with the absence. I have to say I would have liked guidelines as to what and how much absence was acceptable...85% I think is more than reasonable- so if she practices 4 x a week missing twice a month isn't that bad. Maybe point out to the parents that 85% attendance will mean she keeps up with her team, 90-95% and she could whizz past them...
 
No real rules except for if an athlete is not allowed to compete if they are not at all their practices 2 weeks prior to the meet. Their are exceptions say they miss one practice because they are sick but are at the all the rest, all up to the coaches discretion as to if they are ready to do their routines nicely and safely.
Wanted to add that if she is not coming regularly don't move her up, or move her up and don't allow her to compete until her attendance is up. Make it clear to athlete and parents though and give them warning so they aren't caught off guard, maybe they think it is no big deal to miss.
 
Don't have rules unless you want them broken. The first remedy is to create an atmosphere that make the kids really want to be there. It could be a fun atmosphere, but that usually leads to kids not enjoying how they fare at meets. The better choice is to work hard as a coach and require they work right there with you..... and though you could say that their fun comes with that first giant, bhs series. salto vault, or 3/2 twist, you need to add in some fun, and if possible enjoy that fun with them.

Have a semi annual meeting/social event that includes a brief expression of appreciation of all the effort the parents put into getting their kids to the gym, and then tick down the entire list of "firsts" their children enjoyed over that span. Add at the end that not even half of what these kids accomplished would have been possible with habitual absences or tardiness. Just so you don't have to duck and cover.......

Add in that there are times when an absence of tardy arrival can't be avoided. Really the pressure parents feel to get their kids places on time is about equal to you taking kids to a meet with nothing new and shaky routines....... it never turns out good, and can only go worse from there.
 
Whoops!

This is what I meant to say....:confused:

Add in that there are times when an absence or tardy arrival........
 
A BIG +1 to Iwanna's post.

Parents are in charge of their DD gymnast. I do ask to be informed of the absense as soon as the parent recognizes it will happen. I share a public version of my lesson plans for the Team athletes with the parents (each month) and remind them I am slowing building skills that need mastery over time. Their athlete needs many high quality reps in order to consider competing a given skill or even an event.

It may sound silly, but since most of my athletes do not drive, I do not have consequences for tardy, as parents drive. I do follow-up with emails (to parents only) as I sit at my desk after practice. I sent e-mails recognizing excellent effort, injury/re-hab reports, mental victories and absenses and tardies. In the case of absenses I usually ask the parent to relay to their athlete best wishes from staff and temamates best wishes as we missed them. In the case of tardy, I provide a quick review of what was missed as well.

I rarely have absentism problems. I retired from a corp. 50 company and took up full-time coaching as my new proffession. In my part of corp. America absentism was a problem. Employees evidently did not want to be at work. In the gym staff and athletes on rare occasion miss. They are passionate. I really enjoy this aspect of being an everyday coach. I do not take that for granted and remind them frequently that I admire this quality of them.

Best to all this evening, SBG -
 
I always have a few who have multiple absences. But then again my L2 Team is 47 and L3 is 37, so with that many it is going to happen. I keep attendance so I can show the parents how it is effecting them if they ask. Someone who misses for parties, etc is not allowed to do private lessons either. With the 2s, I have a little flexibility because we have a divided practice. I let them come the other night if it is a required school function.
 
I guess this is one of the good things about being in a Y program. Our girls are allowed to miss practice whenever necessary. They have 4 days a week in which to go to 3 practices. If they show up late, they stretch on their own. If they have to leave early for another activity (or in our case because we live a half hour away and practice isn't over until 8pm and they have to eat dinner before bed), then that is fine too. Their conditioning is listed on weekly workout sheets. They can work on them while they wait for their turn or during any other break OR at home.
According to our coach, she "is proud that the program at the YMCA allows gymnasts to be successful in the sport without missing out on other activities such as choir, plays, Girl Scouts, volleyball, track, cheerleading, and others."
 
I always have a few who have multiple absences. But then again my L2 Team is 47 and L3 is 37, so with that many it is going to happen. I keep attendance so I can show the parents how it is effecting them if they ask. Someone who misses for parties, etc is not allowed to do private lessons either. With the 2s, I have a little flexibility because we have a divided practice. I let them come the other night if it is a required school function.

What?! That seems a little extreme. These kids need to have a life outside of the gym. So what if a girl misses one practice to go to Jessica's 11th? I understand if it's the practice before a big meet or something, but if the girl and her parent wants to make up for a missed day by doing a private, they're obviously pretty dedicated.
 
The owner believes that if they were dedicated then they would be at practice. Sure they have to have a life. But you make choices in life and they need to learn that also.
 

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